The Splintered Heart
by Tinkerpanda
Summary: The kidnapping of a little girl brings back memories Jules would rather leave in the past. Secrets can't remain buried forever though.
1. A Good Reason

**AN: I own Flashpoint. Er, jokes. I WISH I owned Flashpoint.**

**I wasn't going to start this until I finished The Truth in the Lie, but … I couldn't resist the Jammy action. Please review. Let me know what you think of it.**

"Samtastic!" Spike shouted over the booming base. "You finally joining us?"

Sam shrugged, adjusting the weights on one machine, dropping his water bottle to the floor beside it.

But Ed wouldn't let it drop. "You're late."

Sam grunted a brief apology.

"Better have a good reason." Ed threatened from his position at the treadmills.

"Believe me. She was a good reason." Sam smirked.

Spike missed the punch bag and Wordy laughed. Leah rolled her eyes, but snuck a glance with Jules, clearly concerned. While Jules appreciated the female company, Leah was far too perceptive sometimes. She rolled her shoulders, continued to pedal furiously. But she was seething inside.

_Jerk_. Rubbing her face in it like that. Yeah. She'd been the one to break it off, but it was inevitable. It was what NEEDED to happen for them both to stay on the team. She'd done it for him too. _Rat bastard_. She thought maliciously.

She hoped they practiced hand-to-hand combat later. Maybe her knee would slip and hit a particularly sensitive part of his anatomy. Just enough so he couldn't use it tonight with his new _missus._

_Pitiful, Jules._ She thought. _Pitifiul. You're over him. So over him. So very, completely over him._

Except for the fact that she was so completely _NOT_ over him. Not even a little.

_Absolutely pitiful, Julianna Callaghan._

Winnie's voice came over the intercom, interrupting her self-loathing pity-party: "Hot Call, Team One".


	2. Ever Again

"Okay, team, what have we got." Ed's voice came through Jules' earpiece as the pulled out of the SRU compound, lights blaring.

"Armed abduction from a school playground in the Annex 10 minutes ago. Hostage is, according to eye witnesses and the school, an Emmaline "Emma" Blackmore. Age 11, approximately 4 ft, 6 inches, 75 pounds, dark brown hair, green eyes. Subject appears to have been driving a white SUV, possibly a early model Toyota Highlander." Winnie's responded.

"Do we have contact information for the parents Winnie?"

"Mother listed as a Laura Blackmore. She's a Registered Nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital. Address: Apartment A 132 Madison Ave. I called the Hospital – they say she just got off shift 10 minutes ago, heading home. No answer at the house number. No information on the father on file."

"Good work, Winnie."

Jules frowned. The name sounded incredibly familiar. Strange.

"Sam, Jules I want you to take the mother, see if she knows anything. Targeted kidnappings like this are typically parental abductions, so see if you can anything about the father."

"Copy that, Sarge." Sam said, rapidly accelerating through a yellow light. "Listen Jules, about this morning. I … should explain." He looked over.

"Eyes on the road, _Samtastic._" She couldn't help the bitterness in her response. "Lets not rehash that right now."

"We can't work together like this, Jules." She hated to admit it, but he was right. They couldn't be fighting or sniping or wound up in their own lives. On the job they needed to be completely focused. Snipping at each other wasn't going to help them or Emmaline Blackmore. She sighed.

There was a long pause.

"There's nothing to explain Sam. You're allowed to have your own life. If really want, we can discuss it after shift. After we find Emmaline." Jules said calmly.

Sam couldn't help but agree. She was right. Focus on the case now. Focus on how he'd managed to screw up what had been a perfectly functional relationship later.

"Nice part of town for a registered Nurse." Jules noted as they passed rows of Victorian-style houses. "Really close to the hospital too. Good schools. Wonder how she affords a place like this."

"Guess we'll have to ask the mother, won't we."

Sam pulled the car into a driveway in front of one of the houses, parking behind a green car. Sam turned off the lights and killed the engine.

Jules rubbed her stomach, trying to combat the burning sensation. It was intuition, she supposed. Something was just … very … very wrong.

"Jules?" Sam asked, halfway between the suburban and the steps.

But she didn't have time to respond.

The door to the house swung open and a woman rushed out. Tugging on a red coat, she jogged down the stairs, blond hair bobbing in a sleek ponytail. Her eyes were shielded by a pair of reflective sunglasses. She stopped dead when she saw Jules and Sam in their SRU uniforms.

"Is this about the break-in next door last week? I'm really sorry officers, I don't have time right now. I've got to pick up my daughter from school – I'm already late. She hates it when I'm late"

Sam stepped forward. "That's actually what we're here about ma'am. We've been trying to reach you. I'm afraid we've go some bad news. Your daughter is missing right now, but we're doing out best to find her."

"But … that's not possible. She's at school." The woman sputtered bewildered. "I've got to go pick her up. I'm late but she knows to wait inside until I come."

Sam looked over his shoulder to Jules. She was usually better with the victim's families but she had grown incredibly pale, eyes widened with shock. _What the hell was going on?_

"We're officers Braddock and Callaghan with the SRU – we're currently …" But that was as far as Sam got, because Laura shook her head violently, craning her head around him to look at his partner.

"Callaghan? Julianna Callaghan?" Laura whispered in disbelief.

"Laura-Jean. I … didn't expect to see you ever again." Jules responded.


	3. Tell You Anything

"This is a joke." Laura demanded angrily. She pushed past Sam, fingers fumbling as she tried to unlock the car.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I assure you it is not." Sam insisted, confusedly looking between Laura and Jules. "DO something." He mouthed anxiously to Jules, as the seething Laura wrenched at the door handle.

She did nothing. Forced to act, he slapped his hand against the car door, keeping it closed.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. But we need to find your daughter as quickly as possible. We need to speak with you for a moment." Sam maintained a calm tone. "It is absolutely imperative." He glanced over at Jules. "Anytime you want to jump in Jules." Clearly she knew the woman.

"Listen. Laura-Jean…" Jules started.

"It's Laura now." The woman said, viciously. She glared at Sam, who continued to hold the door of her vehicle shut.

"Listen, Laura. I'm really sorry about … the stuff before. You have no idea how much I regret that. But we're trying to help you. And your daughter Emmaline. We really just want to help. Laura, we just want to help you." Jules said.

"You're lying. I don't believe you." Laura jerked the door angrily.

"I don't blame you, Laura. I was really cruel to you."

"What do you want from me?" Laura said, suddenly tired. "What more do you want?"

Sam's gazed darted between the two women. He was completely baffled. Women. Honestly. They'd be the absolute death of him.

He shook his head. This had gone too far. "Laura Blackmore, your daughter was abducted from her school at 3:05 this afternoon. If we have any chance of finding her alive we need to talk to you right now. Regardless of how you feel about my colleague we are here to help you, but more importantly to help your daughter. Do you understand?"

Laura took a deep breath. And then another. "Yes. Yes I understand. You should come inside. I'll try to tell you anything you need." She briskly strode back up the steps to her apartment.

Jules felt a little sick. More than a little sick, if she were being completely honest. She thought she'd left those memories in the past, far, far away. She'd started her life over, set herself on the right path. Then it blindsided her with the force of a semi-truck, sending her swerving off path.

"Jesus, Jules, what the hell was that?" Sam asked. Concerned by her sickly pallor he strode over. He wasn't sure what to do - he wanted to hug her - to tell her it was okay. But they were on the job and he'd lost the right to touch her like that when she'd ended things. So, fighting that protective urge, he stood awkwardly in front of her.

_The speedometer read 140 km/hr. The dark-haired boy beside her gripped the steering wheel, knuckles white, pale face shocked and, for once, frightened. Neither of them spoke. Oh god, oh god. Let us get there in time. Oh my god. What have I done? Jesus Christ. I swear, god, I swear that if this ends okay I will stop this. I will stop this craziness. I swear. After tonight this is over. Just … let me get there…_

_God Jules. Pull it TOGETHER. _She snapped back.

"I just need a minute Sam." She said, sucking in a deep breath. He watched her pull herself together. It was impressive. Her ability to just gather everything up under that façade of strength. Jules was taught never to be vulnerable, and so she pulled and tugged and hemmed it all in.

"You go ahead. I just need one minute. To clear my head."

Sam sent her a confused and worried look before following Laura. Something seriously strange was going down.


	4. All Planned Out

Sam found Laura standing in her kitchen. It was a cheery room, a pale yellow. The refrigerator was covered in kid things; pictures, report cards, surprisingly life-like drawings of dinosaurs. A scraggly seedling sat on the windowsill.

"She brought it home last month as part of a science project." Laura motioned. "We're not good at remembering to water it." Her voice was wooden and detached. "I suppose you'll want a recent photograph."

She detached a picture from the fridge, carefully removing the magnet and replacing it after she slipped the image out from underneath it. Her fingers moved lovingly around the edges. She reluctantly handed it over.

Sam received it, snapping a picture and shooting it off to the rest of the team.

A small girl with a bright smile and dishevelled bangs grinned out at him.

"Two weeks ago. We, uh, have a tradition. It's silly. First rainy day of March she gets to cut school, I cut work and we build a fort here. Watch the Lion King. Make ravioli. She tried to cut her own hair last month. Said it was getting in the way."

"We're going to do everything we can to get your daughter back." He assured her. He was torn between empathy for this woman who was clearly terrified, and his teammate, whom she clearly despised. He wanted to know what the hell had happened between them that had made the unfaltering Jules stumble.

"I shouldn't have reacted like that." She said softly, looking out the window. Sam followed her gaze. Jules had, apparently, decided to survey the neighbours. It was fairly routine – see if they had seen or heard anything unusual, noticed strange cars, strangers watching the house, unusual comings and goings. She was nodding in response to something the elderly woman said.

"I just wasn't prepared. It's been a long time. You're ready at first, you have it all planned out what you'll say. But then other things become more important. And it sort of fades from your mind. But it doesn't matter." Laura sighed

Sam almost wanted to throttle the woman. _Just TELL me already _he begged silently.

"Emma is all that matters." He suddenly felt ashamed of his earlier thoughts. This woman was clearly terrified and completely alone except for her daughter. "She's all I have. You have to get her back. I … I don't know what I would do without my baby. I can't have a sapling in place of my child." Laura looked at him, eyes brimming with tears.

"It's all right." Sam said, patting her shoulder. "It's going to be okay. We're going to get your daughter back."

"I just need Emma. I just .." her voice hitched, breaking off into a sob. Her knees buckled and she lurched. Sam grabbed for her before she could fall, steadying her with his hands.

"Look at me, Laura. Look at me. It's going to be okay." He murmured. "You're both going to be okay."

She nodded bravely, despite the stinging tears that blinded her. She couldn't speak. Her throat was swelling up. Her daughter was everything.

"Your team is good at what they do?" She asked.

"Our team is the best." Sam replied truthfully.

"Okay then. Okay."


	5. Partial Match

"Oh no, there's absolutely no problems with Laura. She's the sweetest young girl. I suppose some people might pish on about the fact that she's not married and she had that duckling so young, but that don't bother me." Laura's neighbour, Mrs Hellen, said. The woman was 90 if she was a day.

"Laura's a quiet one – she mostly keeps to herself. But that girl is the light of her life, you know. You can just tell. I had two daughters myself, once about a time."

Jules had no doubt the woman also had about few graddaughters and a couple dozen great-grands to top it off.

"Have you noticed any unusual vehicles parked on the street, any people you think are taking too close an interest in Laura or Emma?" She asked.

"Well…" The woman was a sharp one. "I don't work anymore, you see. Retired. And yesterday when I was settling in with my pot of tea I just so happened to look out the kitchen window. It overlooks Laura's backyard you see. And I saw a man in a landscaping uniform. It struck me as funny. Because Laura and Emma sometimes plant a garden in the summer – they like mucking about. They're not really landscaping-company people. And this man didn't even have any tools. He just seemed to be nosing about."

"Did you tell Laura about it?" Jules asked.

"Well no. I just leaned out the window and hollered that if Laura's TV went missing

I had his licence plate copied down." She cackled to herself.

_Clever old bat. _Jules thought affectionately. "You remember what he was driving?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact. It was one of those big half-van-half-car things." She scoffed "Don't know why anyone needs a car that big."

"An SUV?"

"Yes!" The woman responded eagerly

"Was it white?" Jules said, recalling the original description of the vehicle used by the subject.

"I think so. Maybe a light gray." The elderly woman frowned and her eyes seemed to disappear beneath her circular spectacles.

"And you have the licence plate number still?" Jules didn't want to hope but…

"Yes I do!"

"That's great ma'am. If you could get that for me I would really appreciate it."

"As long as you never call me ma'am again. Makes me feel old and crikey." Mrs. Hellen popped back into her house with a surprising speed. Jules decided she liked the woman.

Jules spoke into the earpiece "Neighbours reported some strange activity in the area – have a potential match to our vehicle. Spike, can you run the plate number?"


	6. No Contact

Jules wasn't a fidgety person. Fidgeting was just a sign that you were nervous. But standing in Laura-Jean Blackmore's kitchen she had to stop herself from doing just that.

"Looks like we might have a partial licence plate. Spike's running it right now." She announced. "Results should be in a couple minutes. In the meantime can you think of anybody who would want to hurt either you or your daughter? Patients or families of patients? Ex-boyfriends? Somebody with a grudge?"

"No, uhm. No. I'm mostly neonatal. I deliver babies. My last relationship ended about … 2 years ago I suppose."

"Did it end on good terms?" Sam asked.

"Well. No. Not exactly. He wanted to get married. I didn't. We broke up. But I don't think he did this. He got engaged last month – I ran into him and his fiancé at the metro. Deliriously happy."

Jules moved forward. "Well we'd like to take his name just in case. Do you know what kind of vehicle he drives?"

"His name was Ray Kimble. A red hatchback thing. I don't really do cars." Laura said, running her fingers through her hair.

"Is Emma's father in the picture?" Sam queried.

"No." Her reply was curt. "There's no contact at all."

"Is it possible that he was the one to take her? Parental abductions are by far the most common type of kidnappings." He explained

There was a long pause. "He doesn't know about her. He never knew I was pregnant. I never told him. We were all better off that way."

"Couldn't have found out about her?" Jules asked. _That could really drive a man over – finding out that a woman hid his child from him._ "Was it …" She trailed off. "Was … Emma from the night that…"

"No." Laura interrupted abruptly. "No, Emma's father … he's just somebody I knew from the Hat."

Jules nodded, hugely relieved.

"I didn't think he's ever left the province, actually. Last I heard he was still in the Hat." But it twinged in the back of her mind.

"Give me your phone." She demanded

"Pardon?" Jules asked, clearly confused.

"Give me your phone." Laura repeated.

The baffled Jules pulled her cell out of her vest pocket, handing it to Laura. Laura flipped it open, scrolling through the pages of contacts.

_If he didn't know before, he will know._ She wasn't sure how she felt about that. But she couldn't risk it. If there was a chance he knew what was going on she'd gladly take it.

She pressed the call button.

"_Hello?" _He anwered. He sounded the exact same. And it still made her heart stumble a beat. Asshole. _  
_

"_Where are you?" _She asked._  
_

"_Who is this?" _She could picture the look on his face perfectly. Absolute confusion.

"_Where are you?" _She asked again.

"_Laura? Why do you have Ju's phone." _He was clearly baffled.

"_Where. Are. You." _She carefully enunciated each word.

"_I'm in Edmonton, on a jobsite. What the hell is going on?"_

She snapped the phone shut. "No. It's not him. He didn't know." _Oh god. What had she done?_

_Read & Review guys._

_I've written about 6 more chapters, but I think I'm going to stagger them throughout the week. Because I have midterms and won't be able to write any more for a while. And that way there will be less of a pile-up._


	7. All Grown Up

**AN: Hey readers. So ... I know a couple people might be wondering about the Jules/Laura background and – sadly – it's not going to happen for a few more chapters. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm waiting for the right moment. I'm going to try and hint at it through a few flashbacks and stuff, but, yeah, we're just going to have to stick it through a few more chapters. That last chapter was probably a littttle confusing - but I swear it'll all clear up pretty soon. **

**PS: Dwennie: Ohhh. I'm really curious about what you think happened (chances are you're probably right). Do share.**

Spike interrupted any further discussion. "We got a match. Car belongs to a Melinda Kellison, aged 23, cohabitating in a Regent Park address with a Michael Brown, aged 27. Melinda is clean, but Michael, alias Mick, has a pretty long rap sheet. We've got a couple drunk and disorderlies, a few assaults, one attempt to solicit, an attempted abduction in 1998, an attempted rape in 2003. Yup. Mick's been a busy, busy boy."

The Sarge responded. "We're moving towards that address now. Sam, Jules find the connection."

"Laura, do you know anyone named Melinda Kellison?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. Sure. Melinda. Melinda used to babysit for me while I was on the nightshifts last year." Laura answered. Sam and Jules exchanged looks.

Jules asked this time: "But not this year?"

"No. Melinda's a sweet girl, but her boyfriend is trouble. He really creeped me out. And he creeped Emma out too. Melinda brought him over a couple times. He scared Em and I wasn't really comfortable with him being around. So I stopped asking her to watch Emma. I felt bad because I thought she cared a lot about Emma but I just couldn't stand the guy. His name was Mick. Mick … something." Laura rubbed her sweating hands against the thighs of her jeans.

"That's good ma'am. That's great." Sam said reassuringly. He moved into the hall to put in the call to the Sarge.

"Looks like the subject's girlfriend knew Emma. She used to take care of her. Mother says that Melinda and Emma had a good relationship. If Melinda's inside we may be able to tap into that bond to get her to let Emma go safely."

"Good work Sam. All right, team, we have a personal connection between the subject and the hostage. That's good." Greg said. "That's really, really good. Sam, I'm sending Leah over in the van – she's going to pick up Laura and bring here to the scene. I need you and officer Callaghan here immediately."

"Yes, sir." He responded, moving back to the kitchen.

"All right – we've got a location, the team's moving in. Ms. Blackmore, if it's okay with you, another officer will be here in a few minutes to escort you to the scene. You may be able to give us information about Melinda or Mick that could bring this to an end peacefully." He told her.

Laura nodded numbly.

Jules couldn't help but think back to Sam's first negotiating session in the SRU parking lot.

_Lew and Ed were posing as drug-addled gangsters, demanding drugs in exchange for the release of two prisoners, herself and Spike. _

"_I'm not going to give you cocaine, jackass." Sam snapped. _

_Ed mimed shooting her and Spike. _

"_Jackass?" Spike had asked, incredulously. Jules had a smug sense of satisfaction at watching the cocky rookie fall flat on his face. Arrogant ass. Why couldn't Rolland have stayed on the team?_

_And then she saw his face. It was a picture of frustration and disappointment. Sam wasn't used to being bad at something. He was, just like her, the kind of person who couldn't accept failure. So when, despite your best efforts, things won't fall into place it's the worst feeling in the world._

_He was having a hard time connecting to subjects because, generally, what subjects want most is a way out. They want their problems to go away – they want a resolution. They want a happy ending and Sam was having a hard time finding his own. _

"_Okay Sam, lets talk this through." Greg's voice was edged by a gentle laugh._

_But Sam had already turned away. "Just give me a minute Sarge." Jules had no doubt that he'd been conditioned by his time in the army and by his high-ranking father (hey – a girl had a right – no, an obligation – to google new co-workers, right?) not to show weakness. What had happened to make him so guarded?_

"_All right team. Lets try this again." Greg said, when Sam turned back, face composed blankly. Jules, raising her hands, resumed her role as hostage. She sincerely hoped he got it this time._

Sam had come a long way, she thought. He was getting better at reading people – seeing what they wanted and needed and providing that. Laura needed stability and reassurance. He was giving that to her.

"What?" He asked, noting her strange look.

"Jeez. Turned my back and little Sammy's all grown up." She punched him on the arm.

He rolled his eyes.


	8. Before My Time

Leah noticed two things when she arrived at the house. Firstly that Sam looked unusually tense and, secondly, that Jules was visibly shaken. It wouldn't have been detectable to everyone. But Leah wasn't just anybody – she was a trained SRU officer who'd teamed with Jules and shared the locker next to hers. Jules was focused, eyes scanning the street. Leah could see her cheeks puff as she exhaled deeply. A civilian would see a dedicated and observant cop. She saw a troubled team mate. She hit the brakes and slid the van into park.

_Did they have a fight on the job?_ Leah couldn't help but wonder. After the scene in the gym this morning it seemed almost likely. She knew Sam hadn't intended to bruise Jules' feelings – he'd just meant it as a witty reply to get the guys off his back. Too bad Jules didn't seem to know that.

She hopped out of the parked van, quickly striding towards the group. Jules wouldn't return her eye contact – _Weird. Really weird._

"Laura, this is Leah Kerns, another SRU officer. She's going to transport you to the scene, ask a few more questions." He nodded to Leah.

Leah assessed the other woman. Blonde, early-30s, dark-eyed. She seemed slightly dazed, which she thought was entirely warranted given the circumstances. She was an pretty woman – an attractive woman.

"Is everything okay here?" Leah ventured to ask.

"Yes. The situation is under control." Jules responded stiffly, turning on her heel to stalk towards the Suburban. Sam gave her a look that told her that he was as lost as she was.

Sam jogged after her, climbing into the driver's seat. The SUV took off at breakneck speed. Leah stood, a little stunned. She needed a minute to collect herself.

"I'm sorry. I don't really know how this works." Laura said, anxiously.

Leah smiled. "It's nothing to apologize for, Ms. Blackmore. I'm just going to get you to come with me."

* * *

"Address is on Sackville Green, Regent Park." Sam hazarded a glance at the dashboard clock. "That gives you precisely 7 minutes to explain. Start now."

Jules crossed her arms. "I don't have to explain aything to you."

"You do if it's going to affect the way you do your job, Jules." He insisted, changing lanes to speed past as a slow-moving sedan.

Jules stayed silent. Her phone rang – checking the ID her heart skipped a beat. _Oh. _She thought. _Ohhhhhh. _She did **not** have time to deal with this. And it wasn't her place anyway. She pressed the ignore button and turned the phone to vibrate.

"There are some really rough girl gangs back in Medicine Hat. I wanted to join one. They have a hazing ritual where they pick a girl and you destroy her. They chose Laura-Jean for me."

"Is that all?" Sam was pretty sure it wasn't.

"No, but that's all I'm going to tell you." She wished he would just _back off_.

"_Jules_." Sam's tone told her there would be no room for negotiation.

"If you know, you'd hate me." She said after a long pause.

"Jules, I could never hate you. I could _never_ _ever _hate you … _Fuck._" He cursed as his phone rang.

Not bothering to check the ID – he couldn't take his eyes off the road anyway – he flipped the cell open and answered it. "Braddock." He snarled into the phone.

"Sam? It's Robert. Put Jules on." The deep male voice demanded. Sam wasn't sure this day could get any more surreal. He glanced over at Jules. _So that's who Laura called - well wasn't that just **perfect. **_Covering the speaker with his hand, he rapped his clenched fist against the steering wheel.

_Who is it? _Jules mouthed to him. _Sarge? Ed?_

Sam shook his head no. "We're on a case. Call you back." He hit the end call button, tossing the phone into the cupholder. Christ. What a mess.

"Who?" Jules asked.

His eyes met hers in the rearview mirror. "Your brother.

* * *

Leah guided the van along at a more moderate pace. She was curious about the events that had transpired between the time they'd taken the call and the time she'd arrived at the mother's house. She managed to keep her questions to herself. Barely.

"Julianna and Constable Braddock …." Laura started to ask, but caught herself. She shouldn't care. She didn't care.

Leah mentally noted that the woman called Jules by her full name and Sam by his title. Very interesting.

"Before my time." She said by way of response. "Is there anything you can tell us about Melinda's past? Her childhood? Her family? Anything that may have caused her to act like this?" Leah asked. She patched his audio in so the whole team could hear Laura's response.

"Uhm, well. Her mother was a single-mom. She had a couple siblings. At least one older brother. She wasn't from Toronto, but I got the impression they'd had a pretty poor upbringing. Mother worked a lot. She came to Toronto for school but she dropped out. She couldn't afford it. She worked at a library at the university." She took a deep breath.

"I met her because she volunteered in the Children's ward at the hospital. We sometimes need volunteers. She liked to hold the babies. She was nice, ground-headed. She and Emma hit it off, so I figured it could work out well. She loved kids, she liked Emma. Everything was fine until Mick." She tried to explain.

"I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe it. This is my fault. I brought a psychopath into my home and now he has my daughter." Laura ran frustrated fingers through her hair, pushing it back from her tired face.

* * *

"Why does my brother have your number?" Jules asked, her voice misleadingly calm. Sam knew inside she was _pissed._

"I called him when you got shot. He was your primary contact." Sam admitted. Damnit – he was in the right here and she was turning this all around. She was the one who owed HIM an explanation. Not the other way around.

"You called him from your cell? What were you thinking?" _Oh yeah. She was pissed. _

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe I was distracted by the board of lawyers interrogating me about the lethal action I took against the man who shot you." Sam acidly replied. "You're not entirely innocent in this either – how come you never mentioned that your brother was with Laura, huh? How about telling me that, hey, this kidnapped girl could be your _niece?_" Sam asked, his temper taking control.

Jules felt like she'd been punched in the stomach. Oh god. The girl _was _her niece. _Jesus. _Well that changed everything.

They swung off Shuter Street and, spotting the other SRU vehicle, pulled in beside it.

Jules reached to unbuckle her seatbelt, but Sam's hand clamped over hers, stopping her. She yanked, but he didn't let go. She reluctantly looked up. "Jules, this is not over. We're going to talk about this later." Sam stated firmly.

Jumping out of the car, he strode towards the spot where Greg, Wordy, Ed and Spike were waiting. Jules was forced to follow.

She scanned the area. Not a great set-up in her mind. The slummish buildings lining the street gave way to a cul-de-sac. It would give the subject a perfect view of the team if they attempted an approach from the front. It was too open, for her liking.

"All right, team. Subject lives in the first ground floor apartment of 223. White SUV in front, plates matching those of Michael Brown. Neighbours say that Melinda arrived home from work about 20 minutes ago – we're fairly certain she's inside but the blinds are shut so we can't see in. We're going to assess the situation before we decide whether to initiate negotiations or attempt a stealth entry." Greg gave a brief rundown of the situation.

"Wordy – we need eyes." Ed addressed the team.

"Sure thing. There's an alley around the side of the building. I'll set up the camera from there." Wordy responded quickly.

"Spike, I want you to prepare for explosive entries through the front window and door. Sam, find a perch in case we need a sierra shot." Sam nodded. He'd already picked the rooftop with the best vantage.

"Jules I want you as my second on this one." Greg turned towards Jules. She nodded.

Ed shrugged a shoulder to where uniformed cops were barricading the entrance to the round-about. "I'm going to ensure the perimeter is secure, make sure that Leah can get the van through. Okay team – lets go."

Jules took a deep breath. "Sarge, I have to tell you something. I knew Laura Blackmore - the mother. I have a personal connection to her. I thought you should know."

Greg pushed his cap back to scratch his head. He'd read Jules' file before hiring her onto the team – he knew there had been some trouble as a teenager, but she strove hard to put that behind her during her time with the RCMP. Laura-Jean Blackmore. Yes the name had seemed a little too familiar when they'd taken the call this morning. "Is it going to affect your judgement Jules?"

"No, sir." She replied as earnestly as she could.

"Okay. Good. Because we don't have time for another SRU officer to get down here. Lets move."

**AN: I decided to google-map street view Sackville Green, Toronto. Yeah, ironically there's a police cruiser in front of one of the houses. Fate? I thought so.**


	9. My Child

AN: Review. No, like, legits. I love reviews. Good - bad... I love hearing back.

When the van arrived on scene Jules fought the temptation to go interrogate Laura. She fought it and lost.

She was trying to talk herself out of it, hand poised over the doorhandle when Leah jumped out.

"Great – you're here. My earpiece is screwing up – I can't hear anything. You stay here with the Mom for a few minutes while I see if Spike can fix it." She hurried off before Jules could respond. Well she was stuck there now.

She stepped inside the van. Laura refused to look at her.

"My brother called." She offered non-chalantly.

"Yeah? Which one?" Laura asked, heart pounding. She knew exactly which brother had called.

"Robbie." Jules responded. Laura remained silent.

"You called him. That's who you called from my phone." Jules stated. She was hoping Laura would deny it. That maybe this was all a miscommunication. But Laura didn't deny it. She just continued to stare, silently, at the floor.

"Is Emma Robbie's child?" Jules asked, point-blank.

"Emma is _my _child." Laura responded fiercely. "I brought her into this world on my own. I raised her. I love her."

"And you never told him." Jules concluded.

"Maybe I did." Laura said.

"You didn't." Jules responded, a sad smile on her face. "Because if you had told him he wouldn't have spent the last 10 years in Alberta. Robbie's a family man kinda guy, Laura-Jean. Let's not kid ourselves. Robbie's the kind of sad sucker you con into going to buy ice-cream at 1 in the morning because you've got a craving. He's not the kind of guy who, when you announce you're pregnant, runs in the opposite direction. He'd have stuck by you. He would have wanted to be there for his daughter."

Laura couldn't disagree.

"I didn't know you guys were together." Jules offered.

"Yeah, well. Nobody really did." Laura responded. "It's not like you would have been terribly supportive." She added, scathingly.

_Couldn't disagree with that. _Jules thought. She'd been an absolute terror in high school.

"Were you ever going to tell him?" She asked.

"No." Laura responded truthfully.

"Are you going to tell him now?" She persisted. _Please say yes. Please say yes._

"You didn't tell him? You said he called." Laura was honestly confused.

"I didn't answer. I can't legally tell him anything about the case we're working. That's confidential." Jules responded, heart sinking.

"I'll have to think about it." Laura said, tiredly.

Jules nodded blindly. It would kill her if Laura didn't tell him. She knew and she wouldn't be able to say anything at all. It was a cruel punishment for everything she'd done. But it seemed so unfair to Robbie.

She should've seen it. She should have known. The summer Laura had left Robbie had been so angry and hurt. How could she have failed to see it?

"_Did you hear about little Laura-Jean Blackmore?" Mrs. Winkleston, the middle-aged cashier said to Jules and Robbie as she packed their groceries. Father had sent them in on a supplies run. They hadn't talked since what Jules had come to think of as "the incident._

"_No." Jules responded quickly. A little too quickly. Her brother was frozen beside her. Could word have really gotten around? She darted a glance his way. He inhaled sharply._

"_What about Laura-Jean?" He asked, dropping the box of cereal on the conveyor._

_She steeled herself for it…._

"_She's left." _

_That was unexpected._

"_Left?" Jules asked, baffled. "Left where?"_

"_Left the hat of course." Mrs. Winkleston replied, bagging the groceries. "She went down the school yesterday morning, handed in the rest of her work. They're graduating her a month early. She left this morning. My sister checked her onto her flight to Calgary herself. Probably has a connection out of there – but she didn't check through so I can't say where she's headed after that." She tutted. "Girl always thought she was better than everybody else. Guess she's bound for bigger and better things."_

_Robbie's pace was pale and slack-jawed. He seemed almost a little dazed. And when they both reached for the bag of groceries his hands felt cold and clammy._

_When they reached his car he thew the bags in the back, slamming the door. Frustrated he kicked the wheel, swearing angrily._

_Jules thought he was still made about what she'd done._

_He threw her the keys. "Go home." He said simply._

"_Aren't you coming?" She dared to ask, timidly._

"_No. I've got something to do in town." He responded, stalking off through the maze of parked cars. _

At the time she thought the look on his face had been surprise. No, it was something a lot deeper than that, it appeared now. It was hurt, betrayal, shock, anger.

Oh boy. And she was about to do that to him all over again because Laura was too angry or scared to tell him. She'd have to see that devastated look on his face again. Her stomach gave a greasy roll.

"You do that." She said, easing back to hop out of the van. She couldn't stay inside. She'd be suffocated by the memories. _Oh god. _Her eyes watered. They _couldn't _be tears. She was on a JOB for Christ's sake. She angrily squinted into the sun, hoping it would help. She leaned against the side of the van, breathing deeply and waited for the tears to pass.

**Read. Review. You know the drill, dollface.**

**And because I know sometimes things make a little more sense in my head than the do on paper (or the internet) will know explain what's been going down the main characters (as far as we 'know')**

**Some bad-news-bear stuff happened between Laura (formerly Laura-Jean) and Jules when they both lived in Medicine Hat ("The hat"). Laura fled the city after a particularly traumatic event and Jules was forced into the seeing the errors of her way and "repent" for her bad-ass-ness.**

**While Laura was living in Medicine Hat she was involved with Jules' brother Robbie. She got preggers. When she realized shortly after moving to Toronto she decided to keep it to herself – she didn't tell Robbie that she was pregnant. She's mad at him – it's related to the whole Jules/Laura animosity.**

**I've already almost finished this fic and I went back and tried to add this in. I just thought the story needed some clarification, yo****u know? Anyway – tell me what you think (works – doesn't work – if it's hated I can easily delete it without any consequences to the plot).**


	10. Let it Go

AN: Thanks for the helpful reviews guys - I'm thinking the last chapter will stay then since the input for it was good. Bacccck to the story.

Sam should have just gone to his post. But something had drawn him to the van.

Seeing Jules leaning against the van for support like that, that thing she did with her breathing when she got upset, the way she'd always try and block her tears by staring into the sun. Yeah – that's what had drawn him to the van. Because he was a sucker for the girl who'd broken his heart just months before – and if he could help prevent her any more pain today, he would try. She'd already been through the emotional wringer once today.

"You okay?" He asked gently. "You know, the team can handle this without you. You don't have to do this."

She was so mad at herself for letting him catch her like that. "And let you have all the fun." She scoffed, trying desperately to cover the hitch in her voice. "I'm fine."

"It's been a rough day for you." Sam said.

"And I'm _fine._" She emphsized, sucking in another deep breath. She _was _fine. Or she would be once this day was over.

"Jules, I need you at command post." Greg called over the com. Jules skirted around him. What Sam wanted to do was step in front of her. She was in no condition to work. It wasn't that he didn't think she could do it – she could do anything. She was Jules Callaghan. It was something she _shouldn't have _to looked so tired. But she wouldn't understand – and she'd get angry and they'd be back where they were this morning.

Sam gave a frustrated bark of a laugh. Yeah. He was definitely over his head on this one.

He eased open the doors to the van. Leah sat in the back at a computer monitor, speaking over the earpiece with Wordy, who was attempting to set up the video cameras. Laura sat silently beside her.

"Leah – I'm just going to borrow Laura for a minute." He said, motioning for the woman to follow him. Leah nodded, occupied by her own task.

"Listen, Laura. I don't know what happened between you and Robbie and Jules back in Alberta." Sam started.

"No. You're right – you don't know." Laura interrupted coldly.

"I will tell you something though. Jules' phone has been vibrating non-stop for the last 15 minutes because her brother is worried about _you_. He cares enough to phone me – a man he barely knows – in the hopes that maybe _I_ can get Jules to talk to him. So she can tell him that _you _are okay. To tell him where _you _are." Sam continued, building up steam as he went along.

"I don't know Robbie that well – but I do know Jules. She's a good person. She's the best person I know. And I can't imagine her loving anybody who wasn't the same. You say your daughter is the light of your life? You never let her be the light of his, though. You never let him know. I don't know what he did to hurt you so badly that you wouldn't even let him know about the child you made together. But I think you know that he deserves a chance to be there for his daughter."

"At the end of today, when we close this case and Jules goes home, she's going to have to call her brother. And, officially, she can't tell him that he has daughter and that Emma isthe reason you called on her phone today. And that's going to burn her inside, but she'll do it because she thinks she owes you and because it's her job _not _too."

Laura stayed silent. But Sam felt like he was getting through to her.

"That little girl deserves a father and he deserves a chance to _be _that father. Take it from me. You can't hold onto the past forever – you just have to let it go and move on. You'll never heal if you can't at least come to terms with whatever happened."

Sam held out his phone. "He's listed under _Callaghan Brother One_." Laura reluctantly took the mobile.

He swung open the van door, motioning her to go back inside and rejoin Leah. She watched as he strode away, hitching the rifle over his shoulder. Jules was one lucky girl.


	11. Got Eyes

AN: Minor confession: I fail at technology. Like, legitimately fail. I had to e-how how to post stories on fanfiction - that's the kind of technological fail I am. I Juuuuust realized you can respond to reviews. And favourite stories. And authors. And put on alerts and stuff. So - I'm really sorry that I haven't responded to the reviews and stuff. Anyways - thank you all for the amazing responses and reviews.

* * *

"We got eyes, boss." Wordy's voice murmured through the earpiece. Jules peered over Greg's shoulder at the monitor. They could see Mick clearly – he was stomping about in an agitated motion.

"He's armed." Greg noted. _Not good._

"Can we see the child or the other subject?" Ed asked. In response Wordy wiggled the cam a little, shifting it to focus on the other side of the room.

"Yeah, got two figures boss. One adult, one child."

Jules held her breath. Yes. There she was. She looked petrified but appeared unharmed. Melinda sat woodenly beside her. "She's shielding her. Look at the way she keeps herself between Emma and Mick. She's protecting. Boss, I don't think she was in on this." Jules spoke quickly.

Greg nodded. "I agree. Subject seems aggrevated – looks like Melinda got off work early today – co-workers said she excused herself two hours into shift with a headache. He probably planned on having this time alone with Emma and would have disposed of her before Melinda got home. She interrupted him, now he's got a big problem. Initiating contact might send him over the edge. He's looking at life in prison – he's got far too many priors for this the courts to go softly on him. If he's going out, he's going to want to do it in a blazing glory."

"So what do we do?" Spike asked. "I've got the explosives ready for entry."

"Not while they're in the same room." Greg axed the idea. "We need to separate them. Make sure the girl and Melinda will be okay before we go in there. Could get really ugly really fast." Greg responded. "We need to get to Melinda. If we let her know that we're here to help, make a distraction, get her to get into the bedroom with Emma we can make entry and take out the subject."

"Yeah, but we have no way of contacting her. We can't risk sending her a message – what if he reads the text? We'd be signing her death warrant."

"What if we used Laura's number to send it? A panicked message saying she can't find Emma. She doesn't know what to do? They had a fight, did she show up at Melinda's house?" Jules proposed. "If he reads it, it's a little suspicious but it isn't completely unfeasible. If he escalates we'll try something different – if he doesn't read the message we'll send another that tells her we're here to help."

Greg mulled the options.

"All right – Leah, send the message. Wordy is that hole large enough for an ear-bud to go through?"

* * *

Melinda was absolutely terrified.

_How could I not have known what a monster he was? That's why Laura stopped asking you to watch Emma. That's why the Robsons had gotten a new house-sitter. It's why the neighbours didn't ask her to watch their daughter Brooklyn anymore. Everybody knew. Everybody but me._

What had she gotten herself into. _Stupid, stupid, STUPID._

She looked over at Emma, who was curled up on the couch, as far away as possible from Mick. _What would he have done to her if I hadn't come home? _She wondered frantically.

Oh god. He'd have never have even met Emma if it hadn't been for her. This was all her fault. She cradled her aching head in her hands.

Her phone rattled on the table. Mick whirled around.

"Who is it?" He demanded. "WHO IS IT?" He yelled the question again, not giving her any time to answer.

She scrambled for the phone. _Oh god. It was Laura. Oh god._

"It's Laura. She says she can't find Emma. She says they fought this morning – she was late to pick her up and the school said she'd already left. She wants to know if … if Emma phoned me or came here." She told him, voice cracking between words.

Mick snatched the phone out of her hand to read it for himself. He laughed hysterically. _Stupid bitch had ruined all his fun. He supposed he'd have to get rid of BOTH of them now. And he'd wouldn't even get the pleasure of playing with his new toy yet._

He typed out a quick response: "No – havnt heard frm her. NEthing I cn do to hlp?"

He threw the phone back onto the coffee table. "That should do." He remarked, pleased with himself.

The phone vibrated again. Melinda looked down and nearly jumped.

She hurriedly glanced at the screen._ Turn the phone to silent._

She quickly did. Mick was too busy constructing a new plan to notice what Melinda was doing.

Another text arrived shortly after.

_I'm Sergeant Parker with the Strategic Response Unit. We're here to help._

Oh god. The police? She glanced hopefully towards Emma. If the police were here there was still hope for getting Emma out safely.

_We've drilled a hole into the east wall – you'll see a small black object. That's a camera – so we can see what Mick is doing inside and make sure that you and Emma are okay._

Melinda snuck a glance at the wall. She could see a glimmer of movement close to the carpet level only a few feet away.

_We're going to send in an earpiece so you can hear me, okay? We're going to try and distract him for a moment so you can get to earpiece and put it in. When you've got it in make sure your hair covers your ears. He cannot see the earpiece. Do not let him see the earpiece._

She looked to the camera and nodded.

**AN: I'll add another chapter tonight probably. It's going to be beastly long - just to warn you. Luff.**


	12. Don't Apologize

AN: Somebody pointed out to me that I add to this story more often than my current other. It's just taht this one is finished so I can just edit and then upload chapters. I'm actually struggling to write the other one right now. Blasted writer's block. Anyyywhoozle.

As warned: this is beastly long. I'm sorry :s

* * *

Inside the van, Laura was turning the phone end over end.

Sam was right about a few things. He was right about a lot of things, actually.

Robbie would be a good father. But she had been so angry with him, so hurt by him that she hadn't let him be that father. She'd been terrified of his reaction so she'd run away without telling him.

She glanced down at the phone.

_1 New Message from Callaghan Brother One_

She knew she shouldn't, but she opened the message anyway. _I know you're on the job and that my stupid-ass sister won't answer her goddamned phone but I figure you can pass this message along to her. I'm on the next flight to Toronto Pearson._

She rubbed her chest. Her heart was pounding in her throat. It felt like she couldn't breathe.

"_Julianna Marie Callaghan. You have SO much to explain." Robbie grunted as he pushed open the doors of the police station. He was angry – even she could tell. The mildest of the Callaghan siblings, he was slow to anger, but, as Laura-Jean could now attest, completely terrifying._

"_I don't owe you anything." Jules responded snarkily. Laura-Jean stayed silent. She wished the ground would just open up and swallow her whole."  
_

"_Actually you do. You owe me approximately 5 hours of sleep, $42.00 in gas money and, hell, we'll throw in $7.99 for the bottle of advil I'm going to need before I drive us back to Medicine Hat." He said, stalking around to the driver's side of his beat-up, third-hand Chevy._

"_Well get in the damn car, Julianna." She stalked past Laura-Jean._

"_You too." He motioned to Laura-Jean._

"_I … can wait." She'd rather not get into the car with Julianna and her brother. Sounded like a recipe for disaster. She'd left a message for her father on the answering machine at home. He'd see it when he got up in, oh, four hours._

"_You know, I really doubt that. Just get in." Robbie responded gruffly. Seeing no other option Laura-Jean obeyed._

_They drove in silence. They'd just passed the city limits to Medicine Hat when the sun was starting to peak over the edge of the low horizon, bleeding rays of rosy light into the hazy early-spring sky._

_Robbie braked hard, pulling the car onto the shoulder. He took three deep breaths. "Get out Ju."_

"_What?" Jules angrily asked from the back seat. "You're crazy."_

"_I'm not kidding Jules. You're a complete idiot. If Dad ever finds out that you were arrested again he is going to flip his shit. There are only so many strings he can pull, Jules. I had a bitch of time getting the officer not to press charges. You need to think about what the hell you're doing. You should be able to get back to the house before Dad wakes up. It's only about 10 kilometers from here."_

"_What about her?" Jules asked, nodding towards Laura-Jean._

"_What about her?" Robbie responded. "She's not my sister, she didn't call me at 3AM to pick her up from a police station in fucking Lethbridge and, most of all, I'm pretty sure this isn't going to be a repeat performance for Laura-Jean."_

"_Whatever. I can think about it when we get home." She responded angrily, kicking the back of his seat._

"_I'm not driving until you get out." Robbie said calmly._

"_Guess we'll sit here all day then." Jules retorted.  
_

"_Guess Dad'll find out you went to Lethbridge last night." He turned around to glare at her. What had his sister become? She'd gone from a happy tomboy last year to an unrecognizable, out of control terror. What had changed?_

_She glared back for a minute before slamming open the door and climbing out._

"_Don't forget your coat." He hollered, throwing it out the window to her. She threw him the finger, before stalking onwards._

_He sighed deeply. Laura-Jean was a little surprised._

_He put the car back into drive and took off.  
_

"_I'm really sorry about Ju. She's not … She doesn't mean to… Well she does. But ..." Robbie struggled to find the words. "What happened tonight?"_

_Laura-Jean shrugged. "Oh. The usual. Got invited to a grad party, which actually turned out to be a hazing ritual for a bunch of crazy bitches. Just your average."_

"_Yeah?" He asked, a hint of a smile. "Just your average Friday night?"_

"_Sure. I love getting arrested. It's just __**great**__." She wanted to stop. She couldn't' help herself._

"_Oh – so that's why Ju has been picked up by the police twice a month." He laughed._

"_I have to say. I'm surprised." He said, looking over at her. "The officer said when he got there the others had fled. But apparently you and my sister were still pounding on each other. I have pretty good reason to know Jules has good aim and a mean punch. But looks to me like she was the one sporting the black eye."_

_Laura-Jean stayed silent. Yeah – Jules may have caught an elbow to the face, but Laura was pretty sure she'd bruised a few dozen ribs in the process. She felt like she'd been trampled by a moose._

"_You may have broken your reputation as the ever composed Laura-Jean Blackmore."_

"_You mean my reputation as the ice-cold bitch." Laura-Jean corrected. She knew what people said behind her back. Robbie had graduated the year before, but surely even he had heard the things the other students said about her. That she was snobby, she was a priss, that she thought she was better than the other people. Truth was she was just painfully shy. She kept telling herself that it was only a few more months. A few more months until she could leave this town behind her for good._

"_Yeah, well. Seemed impolite." He lifted his eyebrows._

"_I just got tired of it, I guess." She said by way of explanation. She _was_ tired of it – the looks, the comments. She was tired of her clothes going missing after gym, tired of finding her car's tires had been shredded, tired of coming to school everyday to a locker covered in hateful graffiti, tired of the taunts and the phone-calls at 4AM. She was tired of it all. "I just sort of snapped." It shamed her. Her mother had told her to always be the bigger person, and tonight she'd definitely fallen to Julianna's level._

"_I don't blame you." He breezed through a red light. It was 5AM on a Saturday and town was decidedly dead. "I know this isn't a good reason, but I want you to know that Julianna's not a bad person."_

_Laura-Jean somewhat doubted that._

"_She's just scared, I think, and frustrated. She never had a mother. I know you lost your mom too." It surprised Laura-Jean that he knew that. She and her father had moved to Medicine Hat from Vancouver after her mother died of breast cancer. She didn't really like to talk about it much. _

_Robbie frowned as he continued. "But you got the chance to know your mom. Jules never really did. And my Dad's not really good with the whole daughter stuff. She's just trying to grow up and doesn't really know how."_

_Laura-Jean frowned a little. It was clear Robbie loved his sister a lot. Which baffled her a little because Robbie was a nice guy and Julianna rather liked making her life hell._

"_You want me to take you home?" Robbie asked, at the main intersection of town._

_She shrugged. She found herself wishing he wouldn't. She liked his company. "I guess."_

"_I suppose. Or we could hit up the 24 hour diner by the highway. I'm starved." Robbie patted his growling stomach._

_She smiled. Wow, Robbie thought. Wow – she's beautiful when she smiles. He wished she'd had more reason to smile._

"_I like that option better."_

She looked to the monitor – at Emma's small face. She was so scared, but trying so hard to be brave. She caught the visible wobble of Emma's lips. She could tell she was trying to fight back tears.

She looked so much like Robbie.

She could remember the last time she'd seen him with perfect clarity.

_She slammed the door to her father's jeep, stormed towards the house. He was standing on the porch, sun glinting behind him. The sleeves of his flannel shirt were shoved up haphazardly.  
_

"_Laura-Jean…" He moved towards her. He lifted his hand to touch the dark, discoloured bruises over her eye._

"_Don't." She said viciously. She held up her hands to ward him off. "Don't come near me."  
_

"_Laura-Jean." He wanted to comfort her but didn't know how._

"_Did you know?" She demanded._

"_No. I didn't know until …" His voice trailed off. He hated to think of it.  
_

"_I don't believe you." Her voice was deadly cold. Icicles could have formed on it._

"_Christ, Laura, I didn't know." He insisted. His heart was breaking. Couldn't she see? His heart was breaking for her._

"_I want you to stay the hell away from me from now on. You stay away." Tears flooding her eyes she raced back to her car, and pulled away. She boarded a plane for Toronto the next morning and had never looked back._

She looked down to the phone. He'd given her a daughter. He'd given a life.

She looked down at the phone. Maybe he hadn't know. She'd just been so hurt, so betrayed that she couldn't see straight. She'd been so angry.

_No turning back now, Laura._ She told herself. She pressed the call button.

It rang once.

"Braddock? What's going on there?" She could barely make his voice out over the airport announcements of boarding.

"It's not Braddock." She responded evenly.

"Laura-Jean?" He asked in disbelief.

"Yes. It's me."

"Oh thank god. Laura are you okay? Are you all right? Sam said they were on a call and … I heard you voice and I had to come."

In the middle of the Edmonton airport Robbie rubbed his hands across his face. He was so relieved to hear her voice. The past 23 minutes had been sheer panic for him. She'd stormed out 11 years ago and left a gaping hole in his life. He'd tried to go after her later – he wanted to give her time to think, but when he showed up the next morning her father had told him, gently, that she'd already left. He wouldn't tell him where. Just that she'd left. He spent a full year looking for her. Then another waiting for her to come back. And she didn't. He tried to move on and couldn't. He would never love anyone like he loved Laura-Jean.

"I'm okay. I'm sorry." She started to weep.

"Don't apologize, baby. Don't apologize. I'm the one who's sorry." Robbie responded.

"No. I didn't tell you something. After I left I found out I was pregnant. And I should have told you after that. I should have but I couldn't."

Robbie's heart sank. "Baby – it's okay." He tried to clear his throat, but it was dry as dust.

"I'm so sorry I didn't tell you about our daughter. She was taken today. That's why I called. Somebody took Emma and Jules showed up to investigate." Laura said.

"Emma?" He asked. "Our daughter's name is Emma? That's real pretty, Laura-Jean." His eyes stung as he struggled to hold back tears. _He had a daughter._

"Emmaline Catherine Blackmore." Laura said. Tears silently tracked down her face.

"Catherine? That was my mother's name." He choked on the words a little.

"I know." Laura responded.

"You named her after my mom?" Robbie asked. He couldn't hold them back any longer. The tears welled over and spilled down his face.

"Yeah." She tried to breathe, but she found it difficult to draw in any air. "I guess I did."

"Listen. The flight's boarding. I've got to go. I'll be there." He said. "Three hours - okay?."

Laura frantically brushed away the tears. "Yeah – yeah. Okay. We'll be waiting."

"I love you Laura-Jean. I never got the chance to tell you." With that he hung up.

AN: Thanks for sticking this one through. Next one's just as bloody long unfortunately.


	13. Always Looking Out

"What's our distraction?" Ed asked the gathered team.

"An explosion?" Surprising the suggestion came from Wordy and not Spike.

"Seems too contrived." Jules remarked.

"We could call the house." Spike suggested.

"We just texted Melinda's cell – that'll throw suspicion on her. And the phone's in the room so he would only have to turn around to see what she's doing." Ed dismissed the idea.

"Pretend to be a delivery?" Spike piped in. "Scratch that. Dumb idea." He remarked a second later.

"What about if we staged a fight out front?" Leah asked. "Like, a fake domestic dispute. If that doesn't work have a cruiser drive by with lights to pick up our fueding lovebirds. The screaming and the sirens out front might distract him. Front window's in the kitchen – so he might move there to get a better view of what's happening. According to police records there's about a call a week to this neighbourhood for spousal abuse – so it wouldn't seem all that strange."

Greg nodded. "Jules – have you got plainclothes on you?"

"Yes sir. In the car." She motioned back to the SRU vehicle.

"Change. You Ed?"

Ed gave him a demeaning look. "She looks young enough to be my _daughter _Greg. And, before you ask Wordy, I'm just saying his buzz cut screams "COP!" and, lets be honest Spike doesn't look like he could put a dent in our Jules."

Greg measured his options. "Okay, you take over for Sam. Sam? We need you down here."

"Yes sir." He waited for Ed to arrive. "What's the word?" He asked as Ed arrived to take over his position as sniper.

"Fake domestic. You're gonna pop Jules one, maybe have a cruiser swing by, stick you in the back. Sirens, lights, the works. Might draw him into the kitchen long enough for her to grab the earbud. Visibility's shit." Ed noted. "I hate blinds."

Sam climbed down from his perch, swinging to the ground easily. He spotted Greg. "Where's Jules?" He asked, scanning the surrounding area.

"Changing. You got plainclothes?" He sighed a little when Sam shook his head. "I've been telling you guys for months. Pack plainclothes. They're _useful._"

"Yeah, yeah yeah." Sam was already headed to the SRU truck. The newly-jeans clad Jules made a beeline for him.

He'd already shed the knee pads and thigh holster by the time and was stripping off his vest when she caught up to him. "Okay. So. We need backstory."

"We could pick familiar territory and you could dump me." He said bitterly, voice muffled as Sam stripped off his SRU uniform shirt. Her mind went blank for a minute.

"Sam are you wearing a wife-beater?" Spike asked incredulously through the earpiece.

"What? You checking me out Spikey? Sorry, man, you're not my type." Sam joked. He noted Jules look. "What? It's laundry day." He said defensively. He removed his ear piece and tossed it onto the pile of clothes. Jules could keep hers so long as she kept her hair down over it, but his would be entirely too visible.

"I just think it's remarkably appropriate." Spike commented, breaking Jules' daze.

"Guys, he's escalating. You gotta move in now." Wordy noted.

Jules looked over at Sam. He was still wearing the cool pants, but that couldn't be helped. Without the gun strapped to his leg, or the legs tucked into his boots they looked almost normal.

They hurried towards the row of apartments.

"Right. That's right Crystal. Give up on our marriage. Just like everything else." He accused her angrily.

"Oh grow up." She replied angrily, storming alongside him.

"Me grow up? You're the one who kept our relationship a secret from your family until after we were married for Christ's sake. Ashamed?" He bitterly responded.

She could hear the Sergeant's voice in her earpiece. "Subject is responding. Keep it up guys."

"Maybe I wouldn't be if you weren't such a juvenile pig!" She pulled up short. "You make me so damn mad sometimes … Scott." _Did I really just use Scott's name? _Jules asked herself. Oh this was not going well.

_Did she just call him Scott? _Now Sam was actually mad. "Yeah? At least I never threw my former girlfriends in your face. And I've had many."

Jules slapped him. She'd intended to, for show, but she hadn't really meant to do it that hard. Goddamned reflexes.

Sam shoved her, knocking her back a foot. "Bitch!" He shouted.

"Asshole" She screamed back.

The subject was blatantly staring.

"Melinda's got the piece." Greg confirmed in her ear. "Well played guys. Looks like the cruiser won't be necessary."

Sam clamped a hand over Jules' forearm, dragging her towards up the stairs towards a vacant house they'd originally considered as a headquarters. Just for good measure, as he passed the subject, who was still staring, he snarled "What are you looking at?"

"A woman needs to know her place." Mick responded, before turning back to the living room.

She tried to shake off the chills that had run down her spine. "What a creep." She whispered.

"Yeah." Sam agreed quietly, rubbing his reddening cheek. "He's way off."

* * *

The moment Mick had headed for the kitchen Melinda scrambled for the earpiece. She'd frantically picked it up, stuffing it in ear and pulling her hair down over it as she hurried back to the couch.

"Mel?" Emma's voice was small.

"Yeah Emma?"

"I wanna go home." Emma said, on the verge of tears. "I know, sugar. I know. You'll be going home real soon." She hugged the girl close. How could Michael ever think about harming a child?

_Melinda can you hear me?_

She nodded, sure they could see her on the camera. She could hear the couple out front arguing.

_Melinda I need to know if Michael's armed._

She nodded again. She'd seen him tuck a handgun into the waistband of his jeans, concealed by his jacket.

_Okay. If he comes back we need you try and assure him that everything is going to be fine. That you can fix this together._

She felt sick to her stomach. Fix this together?

_We need him to trust you so that you can move Emma to safety. We can't move in until we can make sure that you and Emma will be safe._

Mick re-entered the room.

"Baby? Baby you know you mean everything to me, right?" She asked, sweetly. Bile was rising in her throat. _Disgusting._

"Sure." He said offhandly. Unfortunately she didn't mean much to him.

"I know this was a mistake. But we can … we can take care of this. All we have to do is get rid of her. And nobody will ever know who took her." She tried to assure him. _Oh boy. _She thought. _You just bought yourself a first-class ticket to hell._

He looked at her suspiciously. He knew how much she loved Emma.

"You're playing me." He accused her.

"No. No. She's just some girl I used to babysit. Her mother's too hoity to let me look after her anymore. They think they're better than us. But you? You're my soulmate." She nearly choked on the words. "I would do anything for you_._" She claimed. She moved towards him.

"I could help you." She smiled hesitantly. "We can pretend this never _ever_ happened."

Michael scratched his chin. This could be useful. Nobody would be asking what happened to Melinda. And he'd have an alibi if the police ever did catch on.

Very useful indeed.

"Maybe we should kill her right now." His gaze slid over to the terrified little girl. No use to him now. Shame too. Such a pretty little thing.

"No." She responded a little too quickly for his liking. He swiftly turned back to her.

"No?" He repeated threateningly. "Did you say no?"

"It's just not smart to do it here. What if the police come? They could find forensic evidence if they found her blood or whatever. You see it on CSI all the time – you can never clean thoroughly enough. We should take her in the car – to outside the city as far as possible. They'll only have evidence she was in your car and here. And she's been both places before. Rememeber? I borrowed your car a few months ago? And once, during an emergency call, her mom dropped her off here? So that wouldn't prove anything." She explained quickly.

He leaned over. She froze. He merely pressed a kiss to her forehead. "So smart. Always looking out for me." He remarked, smiling at her. She felt like a lamb in lion's den.

"They'll be looking for her though. I bet there's an amber alert out already. Why don't I take her to the bathroom and give her a bit of a haircut? So people will think she's a boy. They won't be looking for a little boy." Melinda said. "You can stay here. Relax with a beer. I'll take care of everything." She reassured him. Her stomach was turning, quenching into knots.

He nodded. _If he'd known she'd have been so helpful he would have brought her in on the plan months ago. Looks like he was going to get some fun after all._ He smiled to himself, turning back to the kitchen to fetch a beer.

"Come on Emma." Melinda grabbed her hand. "We're going to the bathroom."

Emma was stark white. "You're not going to hurt me, are you?" She whispered anxiously as Mel locked the bathroom door behind her.

"No, sugar. No. Everything is going to be okay now." She frantically pried at the bars covering the window. Stupid burglar proofing. God. Who knew something meant to keep people OUT for your safety would be so effective at keeping people in danger?

She frantically looked around for something to barricade the door with. Of course there was nothing. It was a bathroom for Christ's sake.

"Sweetie I need you to lie in the bathtub – get down really low for me okay?" She told Emma.

"Why does Mick want to hurt us?" Emma asked, her huge eyes latching onto Melinda's.

"Because he's a bad man. He's a really really bad man." Mel responded.

_We're coming in Melinda. We can't wait any longer. We're going to make an explosive entry in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…_


	14. Learn to Deal

The explosion rocked the house.

She could faintly hear shouting – she couldn't tell. Her hearing was a little shot. Spike's concussive grenade had worked like a charm, as it were.

_Put your hands up! Michael Brown put your hands up._

The door quaked as though somebody was throwing their body against it. Mel heaved with all her might against it, praying the lock held.

There was a shot. And then another and another and another.

"Let me in Mel!" She thought she heard him scream. "Let me in."

She sobbed. A bullet ripped through the door two inches to her right, sending splinters flying. She glanced over, but Emma had been sheltered by the high brim of the bathtub.

Then there was another shot. And the door gave one final thump as Michael's body fell against the door and she knew he was dead.

"Come on, Emma. It's okay. You can get up now." She helped Emma clamber to her feet. "It's all over now." She opened the door slowly. Michael's body fell at her feet.

"Don't look Emma. Don't look." She shielding Emma's eyes with her hands, pressing the girls face against her body. It was too late for her though. She saw the pool of blood, the spatters across the hall. She saw what was left of Michael.

A group of police moved towards them.

"Go on. They'll take you to your mom." She motioned, patting Emma on the shoulder as she stepped over Michael's body.

Emma raced towards them. "Mommmmmeeeeeee" She screamed. Tears were streaming down her face. She was openly sobbing now as she bolted away from the ugly scene.

Wordy, clearly the most experienced with young children, moved forward to intercept her. "Hey sweetie. Your name's Emma, right? My name's Kevin. I'm glad you're okay. You've been a really brave girl. Your mom is really worried about you, but she's just outside. Do you want to come with me and see your mom?" He held out a hand. Emma considered him for a second. It didn't take her long to decide. She placed her hand in his.

Oh the resilience of youth, Melinda though brokenly. She could never trust that openly. Look where it had gotten her.

The officer disappeared with Emma and she felt a huge burden lift. She looked down absently. Michael's gun lay at her feet.

The blonde officer moved forwards. "Hey Melinda? You did a good job today."

She nodded woodenly.

She crumpled against the wall beside her. It would be over soon.

Greg saw it. Before she even reached for the gun he knew she was going to do it. "No! Melinda - don't do it." But it was too late. She'd already snatched up the gun and was pointing it at her own head.

"I can't do this." She sobbed. "How can I live with myself? After what I did?"

"You didn't do anything wrong, Melinda." Greg tried to reassure her. Sam and Ed re-aimed their weapons at her. Just in case she decided to take somebody with her. "Because of what you did that little girl is going home to her mother. That girl is still alive because of you."

"But he would have killed her!" Melinda sobbed, hand shaking. "He never would have seen her if it hadn't been for me! He would have killed her! How many others has he killed? How many others didn't I know about? How could I not _know_? I deserve to die for this. How can I go on living when I know what he did? What I helped him do?"

Jules eased forward. "Sarge, I can do this. Let me talk to her." Greg weighed the options.

"Okay. You take over. But I'm here for you." He stepped back.

"Melinda I know what you're going through." Jules moved towards her.

"You don't." She sobbed.

"Yes I do. I know what it's like to make a big mistake. A huge mistake. A mistake that hurt somebody else. And to think that the rest of your life is going to be determined by that one mistake."

Melinda lowered the gun an inch. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. I do. I know how you're feeling. Not so long ago, I made a big mistake and somebody almost got killed. And I thought I ruined somebody's life. And today I found out that that woman – the woman I hurt – she has a daughter. She has a beautiful daughter that she loves more than anything."

Melinda's tears were coming faster now.

"I know it seems like this is the only thing in your life right now. It's overwhelming and scary." Jules eased forward another step. "I know you're looking for some way to atone for supporting Michael, for believing in him. But the best way to do that is to keep living and go on with your life."

The gun lowered another inch. "What did you do? Afterwards, what did you do to forget?"

"I joined the police. So that I could so some good in this world. So that I could save people. At the end of the day I wanted to say that in my life that I'd done more good than bad. Melinda, I'm going to tell you the truth. You never forget, but you learn to deal with it. You can't let this define you Melinda." Jules continued to step forward.

Sam, on her flank, shifted forward with her. He couldn't risk losing the line of fire. Even though she seemed to be de-escalating, he couldn't take the chance that she'd try to go suicide-by-cop and shoot Jules. He'd already been down that road before. It wasn't pretty.

"Laura tells me you volunteer at the hospital. That you like to hold the babies. Sometimes they ask you to hold the sick ones. You're making a difference to those babies, Melinda. That's your good. Emma's going to be fine, and that's because of you. You got her away from him, you kept her safe. And she's going to be going home tonight because of you. And that's yours too."

"I know you feel responsible for Michael's actions but you're not. You are not responsible. He was. Come on, Melinda. Put down the gun. Lets walk out of here together."

Melinda gave a last sob before dropping the gun to the floor with a clatter.


	15. My Mistake

_Yeah_, Sam thought. Yeah, days like today were the reason he'd joined the SRU in the first place. A crazy, chaotic, hectic mess of a day – but it had turned out okay. They'd saved two lives.

He'd taken lethal action, added another person to his body-count. And that was hard. Taking a life was never an easy choice, even when you knew that it was the only thing to do – the RIGHT thing to do – it was hard. But he knew that Mick wouldn't have stopped. He would have killed Melinda and Emma. And so it made it a little easier. It made it better to know that there wasn't anything he could have done.

He knew he'd made the right decision when they'd emerged from the house, Jules guiding the weakened Melinda, and he'd seen Emma fly across the pavement to throw herself into her mother's arms. And that made it easier too.

His eyes skimmed the perimeter. Media vans were starting to accumulate around the entrance to the Sackville Green. Guess word had gotten out that they'd recovered the missing girl.

Ed was arguing with the suits who'd come to detain and question him about the shooting. Greg had joined Leah in the van to finish the transcripts while Wordy and Spike started packing up the equipment.

He'd ended somebody's life today, but Sam was pretty sure he was going to be okay.

Jules was sitting with Melinda while the paramedics checked the young woman over. Jules on the other hand, he sighed to himself. He really just wanted to make sure Jules was okay.

The SIU officers managed to dislodge the angry Ed and he stormed off.

"You know the drill Braddock." The officers said as they approached. Sam shrugged.

"Wait!" He heard the feminine voice say. "Wait."

"Ma'am we're not allowed to let you speak to him." The agent tried to brush Laura away.

"It'll just be a second."

"Ma'am" The agent cautioned her again.

"I'd just like to thank him for saving my daughter." Laura said, Emma's hand clutched firmly in hers.

Inspector Morris was a bitch about procedure, but he turned his back, mumbling.

"Thank you. You and your team did more than you could ever imagine."

"Sure thing." He responded easily.

"What do you say Emma?"

"Thank you for shooting Mick." Emma said shyly.

"Emma!" Laura responded, but her hand came down to stroke Emma's knotted hair.

"Thank you for shooting Mick, please?" Emma tried again, giving him a small smile. So much like her auntie Jules, he thought. Getting stupid oafish SRU officers wrapped around her little finger.

"You're welcome sweetheart." He couldn't but smile.

"Can I shoot your gun?" Emma asked, eyeing his rifle. It was only a couple inches bigger than she was.

He wasn't entirely sure what to say. "Maybe some day."

"I … you can have your phone back." Laura dug it out of her pocket and thrust it back at him. "I called him. I thought about it and you were right. Sometimes you just have to put the past behind you. I thought I had, but I didn't. I never thought people could change until today. But I think that some people will surprise you I guess."

Sam searched for Jules. Yeah. She was always surprising him.

"She was amazing in there. I could hear from the truck." Laura said, following his gaze. "You said that you couldn't imagine Jules loving anyone who wasn't the best? I guess it's a good thing she has you, then."

"You're mistaken. Jules doesn't love me." It hurt Sam to admit it. He rubbed his chest absently. His heart was swelling painfully with the thought … with the hope that …

Laura bit her tongue. "Hm. My mistake, I guess."

* * *

AN: To my reviewers: You guys are fantastic. So much love to you all.

Just two or three more chapters (and possibly an epilogue depending on how much Jam you can possibly tolerate. I'm warning you now. There will be Jam. A mountain of Jam. Like. Prepare your peanut-butter amounts of Jam. Sorry non-Jammers - it's just the way it spun).


	16. Undo

Debriefing had been mercifully quick – so quick, in fact, that Sam hadn't arrived back yet when the team had finally gone of shift. Ordinarily they would have waited for him to come back. Because they were a team and they looked out for each other. But Greg could see that Wordy was itching to get home to his daughters, one of whom was nearly Emma's age, and that the case clearly hadn't been easy for Ed either. As parents it seemed to strike some chord inside them. And the usually steady Jules had seemed both shaken and exhausted. So Greg had told the rest of the team to go home. In fact, he ordered it.

He sighed, knocking on the door to the women's locker room. Leah answered, swinging a duffle bag over her shoulders.

"Jules still here?" He asked.

"Oh yeah. I think she's done trying to drown herself in the shower, Sarge." She joked. Greg laughed, waving goodbye as Leah departed for the night.

"Jules?" He asked, tentatively entering the room.

No response.

"Jules?" He asked again, louder this time. He rounded the corner. Jules sat, on one of the wooden benches in front of her locker, staring blankly ahead. She'd changed back into street clothes, donning a new pair of jeans and a fresh shirt. The ones she'd worn into the raid on Sackville Street had been splattered with Mick Brown's blood. She couldn't stand to see them – she'd thrown them away.

_Oh Jules. _Greg thought. _Hurting, aren't you? But too proud to tell anyone._

"Hey there Julianna." He said gently, settling down beside her on the bench. "You're going to be okay." It wasn't a question or a demand. It was a statement. She was going to be okay. She always was.

She looked up at him.

"We all have bad days. But I want to say I'm proud of what you did today. You did an amazing job." He assured her.

"I didn't know this morning. When we took the call I didn't know. She'd changed her name because of what happened – she wanted a fresh start so she dropped the Jean in Laura-Jean. And then she's got my brother Robbie on the phone because, oopsies, he's the daddy. But she didn't tell him because she was angry with him and felt betrayed and was afraid because of what I did." She found herself babbling. But she couldn't stop the flow.

"And … and … I screwed it all up for them. I screwed up for Laura-Jean, Robbie and Emma because I was stupid. I thought working here … I could save people and make up for it. But no matter what I'm always going to be the person who ruined their family. Nothing I _do _can _undo _that."

Greg nodded understandingly. He knew what it was like to screw up. He lived with that pain everyday since his wife had left.

Her heart stumbled. "He called. He got into the airport a couple hours ago and … he's met his daughter now. She wants to be a palaeontologist. She likes dinosaurs – particularly the triceratops. And he says that when he looks at her he's reminded of me. Because she looks just like me."

"She does." Greg agreed. "She definitely looks like a Callaghan.

"He's not angry at me." Jules stated, baffled. She thrust her hands angrily into the pockets of her hoodie. "He's not mad. Why isn't he mad?"

Greg leaned back. It was a heavy question. "Because it's in the past, I guess. You have to move forward with your life. How can he be mad when you're the reason he now has a daughter. In all senses. She's alive right now because of you. And he knows about her because you were the one who responded to the call"

"Sarge, you know what happened don't you?" Jules felt tears of shame well up.

"Of course. I have everyone's records. You'd be surprised at the shinangians our boy Spike got up to in his middle-school days." Greg laughed. "Blew up the girls' bathroom with chemicals he stole from the janitor's closet and the science office."

"Why did you hire me?"

"Excuse me?" He asked, taken aback.

"Why did you hire me, then?" Jules persisted.

"Because you're smart, you're driven. You're a mean shot, you're strong as an ox and you read people well. You've got good intuitions, you react quickly. You've got heart and you care about the cases. You connect. Nobody's perfect. I didn't pick anyone here because they had an exemplary record. I picked them because the team needed _them._ As a person. And because, maybe they needed the team too. Jules – you can't punish yourself your entire life for what happened to Laura-Jean. Forgiving yourself is the hardest thing you can do. It may take some time, but you're a strong person."

"I love you like a daughter." Greg reached over, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders. She turned to bury her face in his shirt.

"I love you too." She murmured.

"You should go home, Jules." He cautioned her.

"I will" She said, shaking her head. "I just need to get off a few rounds. Clear my head so I can sleep tonight."

_Sure._ Greg thought as he reluctantly headed back to his office. She wasn't fooling him. He knew she was waiting for Sam to get back. The range may clear the head, but it wasn't the reason she was still at SRU headquarters, brutally tired after the gruelling day.

"Sarge, Winnie said you wanted to see me?" Sam approached Greg hunched of his table of transcripts. He was signing off on the records.

"Yeah. That took longer than I expected." Greg noted conversationally. "You were gone a long time."

"Well. Apparently the SIU has a lawyer who seems to think that the worlds revolves around sunshine and puppies. She's not going to last a week, in my opinion, if she thinks all we have to do to resolve a hostage situation is a fucking smile and a promise. Apparently she's saying that we should have made a less-lethal entry."

"We tried. Couldn't be helped. We read the subject – he wasn't let either of those girls out of the house alive." Greg responded. "It needed to be done quickly and with as little risk to the child and woman as possible."

"That's what I said." Sam rolled his eyes.

"I didn't call to talk to you about the case." Greg gingerly broached the subject. Sam looked to the boss with confusion. "I need to talk to you about Jules."

* * *

AN: Two chapters tonight (this is 1 of 2). Thanks for all the reviews on 14 and 15.

Hypatia: There will definately be more. I've got about a billion and a half half-formed ideas floating about.


	17. Gemini

Jules trudged towards her vehicle in the nearly deserted parking lot. Kira had said that Sam had come back – that he'd been debriefed by Sarge and that he'd left. She was too tired to cover her disappointment.

"Jules." Her head snapped up.

"Sam." She was surprised, but there he was, leaning against the hood of her jeep. "Kira said you left. How did it go with the SIU."

He shrugged. "Eh. The usual. Pain in the ass, right?"

She shrugged. Suddenly she felt very awkward. She wasn't quite sure what to say.

"Was wondering if I could catch a ride home." Sam said, pushing off the car.

"Yeah, I guess I could do that." Jules tried to smile. It was a weak attempt.

"Why don't you let me drive? You look tired." He told her. "You can barely keep your eyes open." He pointed. He snagged the keys from her hand. She blinked in confusion.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. If you can't even defend yourself against the key-snatcher I don't think you should be allowed to drive."

She smiled a little, climbing into the passenger seat. Sam's company was certainly welcome. Unless…. "I don't want to talk about today though." She cautioned him. "I don't want to talk about Laura-Jean or Robbie or Medicine Hat or shooting that bastard."

"Sure." Sam swallowed his pride. _Why wouldn't she let him in? Hadn't he proven himself._

She dozed as he navigated the car out of the parking lot and fell into a deep sleep by the time he'd turned onto the highway. He bypassed his house and headed for hers. He could call a cab from there or – if she was willing – he'd crash on the couch.

He looked over. She usually looked so peaceful in her sleep – her features, constantly tense at work, would relax. She looked so gentle. You almost forgot that she could jump off a building or tackle a Jamaican gangster or kill a man from 100 yards. But she looked troubled now. She curled up on the seat, knees tucked close to her body, arm tightly wrapped around them. She looked small and fragile. Not the Jules he was used to seeing.

He glanced in the rear-view mirror. He made a split-second decision, turning the car onto a back road.

Jules awoke with a light start, jumping back when Sam reached over to touch her shoulder. _Ouch. That was going to bruise his ego significantly_, he eased back.

"Come on. I'm going to show you something."

"Where are we?" She sleepily protested.

"Uhm, just outside Markham." He grinned a little sheepishly.

"… That's so not close to home, Sam." She muttered.

"I know."

"This better be worth it." She grumpily said, slamming the door of the Jeep. Sam snagged the blanket – the girl kept her car prepared for anything – from the back.

"It's not far." He said. There was a small, white, flimsy gate head. A pretty weak deterant if you asked Jules. The road was lined with short bushy trees – she couldn't make them out well in the darkness. What the hell was he doing?

"We're trespassing. That's illegal." She said as they skirted around the fence.

"We're members of an elite policing unit investigating claims of fire-arms being dispatched at this location." Sam grinned.

She snorted. "What is this location?" She asked, though, curious.

"You'll see." He said simply. Instead of continuing up the road he led her along a lightly-worn path through the wooded area. And when she emerged on the other side of the brush of trees she understood.

The evening sky seemed to open up before – huge, vast and absolutely endless. The silky black was dotted with the most brilliant specks of light. The stars were crisp beacons against the dark sky, swirling in patterns in all directions. It was amazing. She hadn't seen anything so spectacular in years.

"It's beautiful." She said, looking up. "It's so beautiful."

"Yeah. I thought so too. One of the best things about Afghanistan was that there were no lights. So at night the stars were massive. So big and bright. You felt like if you reached out you might be able to touch one." He said, spreading the blanket over the damp ground.

"It's hard to see them in the city." She said. "That's the thing I missed most about Medicine Hat when I came here. When you look up at the night sky they seem so distant. Sometimes you can't even see them at all. I used to love watching the stars at night."

"I know." She had told him. The first day he'd come to visit her in the hospital after she'd been shot, she'd been high on the pain medication. She'd begged him to take her up to the roof so she could count the stars. She needed a star to wish on.

He smiled at the memory, stretching out on the blanket. Jules joined him – lying close but careful not to touch. They lay in silence.

"Last night…" He started. She shook her head.

"Don't spoil it Sam." She sighed. She didn't want to hear about his new girlfriend.

"No. I think you should hear this. Last night I spent 3 hours looking for my neighbour Rachel's cat Voldemort. When I said that last night was worth it I mean the look on her daughter Lizzie's face when we found the mangy beast napping under a hydrangea bush."

"Oh." Jules felt incredibly stupid – she knew and _liked _Rachel and Lizzie. She'd been so jealous and petty that morning. And he'd spent the evening with a fourth grader, her widowed mom and a mild-mannered tabby. She felt pretty damn stupid.

"I was just being an ass this morning. And I didn't want to tell Ed that I was late because I had to rescue a house-cat. He's not so fond of them." Sam reached his arms up, crossing them behind his head as a cushion.

Truth was he'd said it because he wanted to piss her off. She pissed _him _off. Today was their 6-month-break-up-anniversary. And she could just breeze through her day pretending that nothing had every happened. That burned him a little.

He glanced over at her. She could sense he was looking at her.

"You know the story of Gemini, right?" He asked, pointing out the constellation.

"Yeah – Greek twin brothers. One was the son of a human, one was the son of a god. When the mortal one died the other asked his father Zeus to put them in the sky so they could be together forever." Jules remembered the story briefly from the Greco-Roman unit in grade 12 history.

"Yeah. Something like that." Sam said. "My family moved around a lot when I was younger. Lots of bases, lots of schools, lots of neighbours and best friends. But we stayed a long time in CFB Kingston for almost two years and I got a little too attached. So when we got relocated to Wainwright, I was pissed off. I was, I dunno, 12 or 13. And I snuck out and got piss face wasted on really cheap alcohol."

Jules snorted. "Jeez. Late starter, much?" She drawled sarcastically.

He ignored her comment "I remember wandering back home and, shit, I could barely walk. I fell over on the front lawn and I just couldn't bother getting back up. Weird feeling – like your legs are jello. My mother had been waiting for me – luck it wasn't my dad actually."

Jules hadn't met his father but she had the sincere impression he was an intimidating man.

"And she sat down beside my drunk ass self and she didn't say too much. She pointed out Gemini to me. Told me she thought it was a dumbass story. No way those kids could be twins without the same father. I mean. They were born out of a fricking swan shell. It was way too bizarre." He laughed at the memory.

"She told me that she thought it was a mirror. And how the person we see on the other side – it's different than what other people see when they look at us. She said something like: "Sammy – the only person who gets to decide who you see in the mirror is you." And it made absolutely NO sense to me at the time. But I think it might have been the smartest thing she ever told me." Sam said gently.

"Is this your way of asking me what happened with Laura-Jean?" Jules asked.

"No. This is my way of telling you it doesn't matter what happened then. What matters is the person you are now." Sam said.

She looked back up at the stars. And for the first time today tears started to form. They threatened to spill.

"Growing up without a mother I never really thought I was missing much. I didn't remember what it was like to have one, so how could I miss her, you know? I had my brothers, and I had my father. And that was fine. I never knew there was something missing until I was maybe 17. And I was at that point where you're going to be an adult soon. And I was going to be a woman and I didn't really have anyone to turn to. I didn't have any guidance. My father is great. He is amazing. But he couldn't be my mom."

She blinked rapidly against the flood of tears. It was useless because they were already streaming down her face. He rolled onto his side so he could see her more clearly. Moonlight glinted off her wet cheeks – and she still looked beautiful to him.

"My friends would fight with their moms, and bitch about curfews and groundings. But when they broke up with their first boyfriend, they could count on their mom to be there and comfort. When I got dumped by my first Jimmy gave me a six-pack and promised to punch him in the face."

"Good ol' Jimmy." Sam said, lightly. His heart hurt for Jules. He laid his hand, large and warm, overtop her small icy-cold one.

"Yeah. So. Grade 12 I got mixed up in a bad crew. I was just fighting to belong. I felt like maybe these girls could give me something that my father and brothers couldn't. Like … maybe I could find out where I was supposed to fit in this crazy world. They pick a project for each prospect. Mine was to break Laura-Jean. She was new. Straight from Vancouver."

"I justified it by saying that, hey, it wasn't like she was a nice person anyway. She was cold, snobby, bitchy. I didn't know that she was struggling with the same thing I was – that she was hurting from losing her mom and being ripped out of the life she knew to be dropped in some backwoods town in Alberta."

"What did you do?"

"At first it was stupid shit. I vandalized her car. I'd crank call her house. Steal her clothes after gym. We'd spread rumours – horrible lies every one of them. We stole her homework, bribed the school secretary into altering her transcript before sending it out to universities – so it looked like she'd failed Math 11 and English and French. We tired to get her fired from her after school job by complaining to the manager."

"One day we got a guy from her art class, somebody we thought she liked, to tell her there was a grad party out in Lethbridge. And she showed up and I thought that she was finally going to crack. I got in her face. I said some truly awful things. And Laura – she just walked past like I was nothing. And I was so angry. And I just went off. I said these horrible things about her mom. I said that she should be glad her mom was dead so that she wouldn't have to see the bitch her daughter had grown up to be. And she lost it and she flew at me. And we were rolling across the ground, punching each other and kicking and scratching and jabbing with elbows and knees. The police showed up and I had get Robbie to bail my sorry ass out."

"Yeah?" He asked. "Jules, I'm not going to lie. That's not so bad." He rubbed their still-joined hands across her cheek, brushing away the new surge of tears.

"That wasn't the end." She said, taking in a deep breath. "That's not nearly the end. Robbie … on the car-ride back he sided with her and he kicked me out of the car at city-limits to walk home. And I was mad at him. I felt so betrayed because we'd always stuck together. I look back and I realize he was trying to knock some sense into me. But I was just mad at the time." She remembered the day with perfect clarity.

"And it looked like I wasn't going to make it into the crew – because I hadn't completed my task. At school our leader, Madison, told me I had one more chance to break her. After school today I was supposed to lure her out to this old barn. It was on the outskirts of one of the farms that had gone belly-up. Nobody around at all. I was supposed to lock her inside for the night. It sounded pretty innocent to me."

"So day I waited for her after her shift at the grocery store, I acted all apologetic. And then when she wasn't looking me and Brenda Miller rushed her and forced her into the trunk of my car. We drove out to that barn and shoved her inside. She was screaming and fighting but there were two of us."

Jules shuddered. Thinking it was from the cold Sam edged closer, wrapping the ends of the blanket around Jules. She snuggled closer, laying her head on his chest. She could hear his heartbeat, slow and constant and it steadied her.

Taking a deep breath she continued. "I got home and I called Madison to tell her it was done. And she told me that she was sending her boyfriend Trace over to let her out. I was a full initiate as of that moment. But something felt really wrong about it. My father hadn't taught me to hurt people to get what I wanted. And now that I was in – I wasn't so sure that's what I wanted anyway. How good could this gang be if I had to break somebody to get in, right?"

Sam had a sinking feeling in his gut, but said nothing.

"I hung up the phone and I just knew. I knew right then what Madison had been planning. Trace – he was not a good guy. The year before he'd been arrested because a girl in town had accused him of rape. His dad was sheriff so those charges magically vanished. But he was the kind of guy who would've. He was just a sick bastard. And I realized when I hung up the phone that he was going to rape her."

"Oh Jules."

"I ran out of the house and ran smack into Robbie and I told him everything. He was shocked and he was angry and he was horrified that I would have done such a terrible thing. We jumped in his truck and we raced over to that barn like the hounds of hell were after us. Of course it was at the exact opposite end of the city. Longest 20 minutes of my life."

"We pull up and Trace's truck is already there parked by the road. And I can hear her screaming – she's screaming so loud. And she's yelling for help. And we were racing to get to the damn barn. And it's dark outside so I can't see where I'm going, but I need to stop Trace. We flung open the door and for a minute we couldn't see anything because it's so damn dark and all we can hear is the screaming and, worse, this awful grunting. But then your eyes adjust and we can see - he's there on top of her. He's got her pinned and he's trying to rip off her dress. She's fighting and clawing and trying to crawl away. She's sobbing because she's terrified he's going to rape her."

Sam stroked her hair, hoping to give her some measure of comfort.

"Suddenly Robbie's jumped in and he's trying to pull Trace off. He's punching and kicking and the two of them are pummelling each other. They're rolling across the grass. Trace has got a knife – so I jump in to and try to grab it. He tries to throw me off but I was clinging so hard. I just didn't want him to hurt Robbie. And then, I don't really know. I guess. I guess I twisted the right way or something because suddenly he's gone limp and he's just thumped over on the ground. He's lying there and this pool of blood is growing. He was dead."

"Jules." He said, his voice gentle, edged with sympathy and understanding. She shook her head. She had to finish.

"And we're sitting there and we're soaked in his blood. Its everywhere because I'm trying to save him because, fuck, I didn't want to have killed him." Her voice was shaky and splintered.

"Robbie's trying to get Laura-Jean to leave, but she's shut down completely. She can't even walk. She's sitting there, this huge bruise from where he's hit her spreading across her temple, down her cheek. And Robbie goes to try and put his arm around her – to guide her out so she doesn't have to look at Trace's dead body anymore and she just flinched away. She was so completely broken. I did exactly what Madison and the others had told me to do and I was absolutely disgusted with myself."

"Literally, two days later she was gone. It was kept hush-hush – mainly because Trace's father didn't want people to know that he'd been stabbed because Robbie'd been trying to stop him from raping a girl." Jules shuddered deeply.

"I could barely look at myself in the mirror. And Robbie, who'd been my best friend, the brother I always counted on – he couldn't stand to be in the same room as me. I nearly got a girl raped. I nearly got her killed. Who knows if Trace would have stopped there? I killed somebody. I watched as he breathed his last breath. I felt his chest stop rising. I saw his eyes. It was the most awful feeling in the world. I dreamt about it every night for months." She wept. It was the first time in such a long time. He held her close and she cried.

"I had to get out of that town. I couldn't face what I'd done anymore. I couldn't be surrounded by all these memories of what I'd done. So I applied to the RCMP. I got in and I never looked back." She said, when the weeping finally abated. She felt like an enormous weight had been pulled off. It was all out there – everything was laid out on the table. He could take it or leave it.

"So. That's what happened." Jules said weakly.

He reached over and pulled her into a crushing hug. She lifted a hand to his chest, to push him back. "It's okay. I don't need..."

"Yeah. Yeah you do." His gruff reply came. She resigned herself to it, wrapping her arms around him. She closed her eyes. It felt good to be held close like that. She felt safe. She trusted him.

"We all screw up, Jules. We all do. And we just need to live with those mistakes and move on. I shot my best friend. Greg lost his wife and son to a bottle. We lost Lew to a landmine because we were rushed and didn't take all the precautions. But we have to keep living. We don't have to forget – we shouldn't try to bury out past – but we have to come to term with it." Sam said, stroking a hand gently up and down her back.

"You're right." Jules said. After everything that had happened today – this year in fact – she knew he was right. And she could move on now that she'd confronted the memories of that night. She'd just needed the right person to help her. "Thank you."

"For what?" Sam asked.

"Listening." She replied shortly.

"Anytime, Jules." He kept his arm around her so she couldn't retreat and, surprisingly, she liked it. She was glad that he continued to hold her close.

They lay together under the night's mesmerizing sky, wrapped around each other.

"It's a shooting star." Jules murmured, raising her hand off his chest to point. A long flash of white light dazzled as it rocketed across the sky, its tail a ray of brilliant greens and blues.

"Make a wish." Sam told her, closing his eyes.

"Are you serious? What are we? Five?" Jules scoffed.

He opened one eye. "Do it." He closed it again, face concentrated as he made his wish. There was only one thing he truly wanted.

_I wish she would love me again._

She sucked in a deep breath. Her true wish seemed to painful to hope for.

_I wish he would love me again._

"What did you wish for?" He turned his face towards hers. Their lips were only inches apart. She was so tempted to just lean forward.

"Can't tell you or it won't come true." She said lightly, trying to disguise the desperate need for him.

"Fair enough." He said lightly, mulling it over. "Screw it, I'm making my wish happen." He muttered, leaning in slowly. "I'm not asking permission Jules." He couldn't – what if she refused?

She smiled, closing the distance between them. Their lips met. The explosion of light inside her head was a hundred times greater than any of the stars in the sky. The kiss was like … coming home. She pressed closer, running her hands through his hair. It had been so long but they were the exact same.

He tried to pull back a little. "I'm sorry Jules. I wasn't thinking. I just … got … wrapped up in everything." He ended lamely. _Oh man._ _ Why not just announce that you're still in love with her. Idiot._

She nodded and he thought, maybe – just maybe, she'd forget it the next morning. But suddenly she was drawing him back in, kissing him and he couldn't hold back. She was this crazy fire burning under his skin.

"I love you Sam." She murmured between kisses. "I love you."

His head snapped up, rapping hard against the packed earth beneath them. "… Did you just say?" He asked, looking at her intensely.

_Oh god. _She was so embarrassed. _He doesn't feel the same_. She thought miserably. She tried to scramble away but his arms were locked around her. She squirmed, but he wouldn't let go.

His chest heaved with laughter. Tears of humiliation burned her eyes. "It's not funny." She hissed angrily, pounding a fist against his chest. He rolled on top of her, pinning her so she couldn't inflict more damage, careful to make sure her knees weren't free. She had an annoying habit of targeting sensitive spots when cornered.

He barked out a quick, ironic laugh before looking down. She returned his gaze for a second – hurt and embarrassed – before quickly turning her head to glance away.

"Jules. Look at me Jules." He tried to persuade her, pressing a kiss to her throat. . "Come on Julianna."

"It's not funny." She bit back on the urge to sniffle. She wasn't some weak female. She'd man up, get home, cry there. Eat her weight in chocolate.

"It is funny. Because I'm still bloody in love with you too. I never could fall out of love with you. I tried but it's just not possible. You're everywhere and everything. I could never love anyone more. And when I wished on that star tonight – you were what I wished for. Just you."

She stopped trying to buck him off, looked back up at him. He was entirely serious. Her heart pounded painfully in her chest as she went limp beneath him.

"You mean it. You really do, don't you?" She said, after a moment.

"Of course." He replied truthfully.

"What do we do Sam?" She asked. "What do we do?"

"I don't know, Jules. We'll make it work this time. We'll figure it out together." He pledged.

So they lay, under the bright sheen of a new moon, the whispers of promises echoing in the sweet night air.

* * *

AN: Yup. Two new chapters tonight. It's been quite the ride. I'm still deciding if I'll post the epilogue. I'm not sure whether it'll just detract from the story. I wrote it mostly because I was intrigued by the CTV bio about Jules' troubled party-girl past and it just sprung into my imagination. I know it may have been a bit hard to follow at times but I want to thank you for reading (and reviewing if you did). You guys are awesomesauce.

Anyway it's been _quite _the ride so thanks for joining me for it. Please - if you liked it hit the review button and let me know. If you hated it ... well, you can also hit the review button and let me know.


	18. We Did Good

"_AHhhhhhh. Samuel Braddock, I am going to destroy you._" Jules howled in pain. "_I am absolutely going to devastate you. Level you. Cut off all your limbs and watch you bleed. I'm going to decimate you. You are going to beg for mercy but I won't give it. I won't. There won't be enough of you left for them to investigate and not a single woman in this world would ever convict me." She panted roughly, shoving her sweaty bangs from her forehead._

Sam hovered somewhere between terror and amusement. "Sure Julie baby. Anything you want." He patted her hand gently. Inside he was shaking with fear. What if he was as terrible a father as his own had been? Oh Christ.

She clamped down on his hand, arching against the pain.

It had been five years. Five long years, some good, some bad. Five long years since they'd admitted their love for each other under the vast field of stars. Seemed like forever.

They'd told Greg first because he deserved to know. He was thrilled for them – truly. They deserved the best in life, all the happiness life could provide and he knew they could find that in each other.

There was the small difficulty of them having to work together. The fact was that they simply could not be permitted to work on the same team. They were a distraction. It was impossible not to be when you were romantically involved. However, as it were, Julianna was coming up on her five-year review and had been nominated for a promotion. The brass's primary concern was emotional baggage from her past. Having proven herself more than capable of dealing with that they'd transferred Jules to Team 4 as boss. It was strange, at first. And while she always had a place in the Team 1 family, she now had a second family – another group of men and women who depended on her, who needed her.

Greg had told them that family was a fluid thing, and organic being. It was shifted and reshaped by loss, triumph and time. Lou was still members of the family even if he wasn't physically present. New additions like Sam and Leah were gradually welcomed, finding their own places and niches. Family wasn't about where you are, but who you are.

Yes, family truly was fluid and organic. And it seemed like today, their small family was about to increase by one.

Three years into their marriage, only 8 months ago, Jules had been pulled out of training. Her monthly physical, it appeared, had demonstrated some unusual results. It seemed crazy. On the way home Jules had raided the Shopper's Drugmarts buying three of every pregnancy test. And every single one was positive.

Sam had discovered her sitting on the bathroom floor when he got off his own shift three hours later.

"Jules?" He asked, concerned. "What's wrong? What is all this?"

She launched herself at him, crying into his shoulder. She couldn't speak. "Sam." She sobbed.

"What's wrong Jules? Did something happen to the team? Are you okay?" He drew back to search her face. "Tell me Jules."

"I'm _pregnant._" She finally managed to say. When he didn't respond she elaborated. "I'm knocked up. With child. Breeding. The mothership. Wearing the apron high. Up the duff. Expecting. Preg_nant_."

"Oh." He was absolutely baffled. He saw over the top of her head the carnage of the bathroom – the litany of discarded _Clear-Blue _boxes and plastic wands and sticks in a dizzying array of colours, shapes, sizes. "Oh." He repeated.

"That's all you have to say? Oh?" She pounded a fist half-heartedly against his chest. "This is all your bloody fault. I'm not ready for this. We're not ready for this. This is a big responsibility. And then there's maternity leave and then a baby and diapers and then they'll always be needing new sneakers and then, bam, its prom dresses and wanting to borrow the goddamned car."

"What? Jules you're not making any sense." Sam scratched his head. He was still soaking in the information. They were going to have a child?

"We're pregnant?" Sam asked again. His face split into a massive grin. "We're going to have a baby." He sounded ecstatic, lifting her off her feet to spin her in a dizzying hug. She didn't have time to steady herself before he leaned in and sent her head flying again with an enthusiastic kiss.

"Sam, you're missing the point." Jules said exasperatedly, smacking a hand on his chest before he could kiss her again and make her forget the _problem._ "I … I don't want to quit my job."

"It's just a small break, Jules. You'll be back before you know it. Ed has a kid. Greg has a kid. Wordy has lots and lots of kids." He smiled persuasively. "You'll be back before you know it, talking down bad guys."

He was so happy about it. He was _thrilled._

But … "Sam, I'm scared." She admitted. "I don't know how to be a mother. I don't know what to do with children. I could be really really awful at this."

Sam smiled. "We're in it together, Jules."

They may have been in it together, Jules thought as another bone-wrenching contraction squeezed her lower body, but she seemed to be doing all the work. She'd taken her last trimester and a half off work. She wish she could have worked longer, but the risk to the baby was greater with every day. The stress of the negotiations and the possibilities of physical injury made her take her maternity leave early. Nineteen long-ass hours into labour and she was damned well ready for this to be over.

She looked over at the pale, tired Sam. His hair stood up in disorderly spikes, obviously pushed there by frantic hands.

"You're doing good Jules." He reassured her. She bit back on a yelp of pain.

She decided to set aside the homicidal thoughts induced by her agony when she read his face. He was concerned. He didn't understand what was going on inside her body like she did. He was afraid – to lose her or the baby. He was afraid of failure once that baby arrived. For the next ten minutes he could just be Sam, her amazing husband. But once the baby arrived he had to be a father. He'd have to take on one of the most important roles he'd ever play.

"Sam?" She asked, over the fresh waves of contractions.

"Yeah Jules?" He kissed the back of her hand.

"We're going to be kickass parents." She smiled at him. She was as beautiful as the day he'd first met her. "You're going to be a really good dad."

"How can you be sure?" He asked.

"Because I know you. You love our son. You already love him so much. And I think that's the most important thing." Jules clenched his hand between hers.

"Okay Jules, it's time to push." The nurse finally announced.

Outside in the waiting room Greg paced frantically. His godchild was being born. Crazy – absolutely crazy. Ed and his wife Sophie sat side-by-side in the uncomfortable chairs, her leaning against his shoulder, dozing gently. Laura, Robbie and Emma had arrived only an hour ago – she'd grown so much in the last five years. She was starting her sophomore year soon – it was crazy how time flew by. She sat crosslegged on the floor, working on the New York Times Crossword puzzle, quizzing Greg on all the hardest questions. Spike, full of impatient energy, was debating the latest schematics for BabyCakes 4.9 with Nathan, the compu-techie from Jules' Team 4. Leah and Elaine, another member of Jules' new team, were rounding up coffee.

Wordy and his wife Shelley bustled through the doors.

"Sorry, Sarge. We were at my parents, didn't get the message until we got home. Traffic's a bitch in this weather. Worst snowstorm of the year, they're saying." Wordy said, unwrapping a scarf from around his neck. "Is he here yet?"

"Nope. No. Jules is taking her sweet time." Spike replied. He was just eager for the mini-Braddock to arrive.

"Babies come when they come." Sophie responded, roused from her sleep by the commotion.

"Mmmhmmm." Shelley hummed in agreement, shedding her coat.

"Most painful feeling in the world." Laura commented, patting Emma's head.

"Ew, mom, no need to share, thanks" Emma rolled her eyes. From Spike's pallor he clearly agreed.

"Oh I remember." Sophie toyed with her wedding band. "There's a reason I only did the whole 'birth' thing once. That feeling like your whole body is being held in a vice and its squeezing harder and harder." The men in the room grimaced.

"Really? I just felt like Jaws was nibbling on my stomach. Or maybe like I was continually being run over by a semi-trick full of concrete bricks." Laura noted.

Shelley sighed. "It hurts like a bitch, but its well worth it." She smiled lovingly at her husband, thinking of their four beautiful daughters. "Personally I felt more like somebody had set my entire body on fire"

"No more." Ed stood abruptly. "No more … just … no."

The doors to the delivery room opened slowly. The assembled group turned slowly, in silence. Sam emerged at the entrance, holding a blanket-wrapped bundle. A tiny blue toque peaked out from under the fuzzy-white material. The family gathered round to stare in awe at the tiny, squirming figure. His eyes opened, blearily taking in the crowd of people.

"It's a boy." Sam announced, his face split by his enormous smile. "Eight pounds, nine ounces of beautiful baby boy."

"Must take after his mother." Spike cracked.

"He's so little." Emma said, craning her head to see her baby cousin clearer.

"Don't get any ideas, kid." Greg warned. He grinned at Sam. "Congratulations."

"You decide on a name?" Robbie asked taking in the baby. Yeah – the baby was defiantly going to look like a Callaghan. He looked over at his daughter. That seemed to be the way of things.

Sam stroked a long finger down the baby's soft cheek. "Yeah. We were … were thinking maybe Matthew Parker Braddock." He looked up at Greg. "If that's okay with you." He added unsurely.

Greg smiled, a tear forming in his eye. "That would be fine with me."

Hours later, after their jumbled family had finished fawning over its newest member and had wearily tramped back out into the storm to make their way back home, Jules lay in bed, curled on her side, pretending to sleep. She watched Sam from under her lashes, as he stood over their newborn son. The moonlight reflected off the snow, glinting off his hair, striking his face in profile. Sam looked mesmerized by the life they'd made. So small, so delicate, and so incredibly _perfect_.

"We make quite the team." She murmured, reaching out a hand. He gladly took it.

"Jules." He started, voice cracking a bit. He tried again. "Jules, you've given me the most beautiful and amazing gift." He looked to their son. She smiled at him, at their son.

"We did good, Sam." She repeated, squeezing his hand. "We did good."

* * *

AN: I know I know. I did the cheesy, Jammy epilogue-birth-scene. Don't hurt me.

Okay, so this story is really, truly done. End of the road, shortie. Makes me a little sad.

Mad Love.

Natalie.


End file.
